I’m often asked about my Bic pen drawings and how I do them. It starts with a good foundational drawing, the ballpoint pen part is just trying to colour within the lines. I try to do my best to explain the process, but the best way to show my progress is by posting my efforts to master pen drawings over the span of 3 or so years. I have been doodling/drawing with ballpoint pens as far back as I can remember - they were cheap, readily available and always lying around the house. It wasn’t until I was bored during a particularly long team meeting-conference call (around 2016-17) that I started to think about the possibilities of ballpoint pens as serious portrait illustration tools. My first experiments with full colour ink portrait drawings were rather crude, but that’s the point of learning new techniques—as long as the curiosity and the love of drawing is there, you can transfer that skill and passion into any medium. Remember, the most exquisite drawings and paintings you see didn’t materialise fully formed, they started out as failed experiments. Failure after failure after failure. It’s important to remember this when you get discouraged (I've failed spectacularly over the years). The only difference between the accomplished artist and the beginner is hundreds of hours of practice. Talent can only get you so far. It’s the hard work that you do behind the scenes that makes your work look effortless. Keep doodling. Keep learning. Stay curious.
This started as some scribbling with Inktense pencils on large plain drawing paper. Then I was done, I wanted to wet the the drawing to release the "ink," but I found that the paper would not take water without drastic buckling. So, it remains a drawing rather than becoming a painting.
I have a little Moleskine (3.5 x 5.5) notebook that I only draw skulls in. I started in November of 2013 and I do one whenever the urge strikes me. It's not like a skull-a-day thing but sometimes I do get into a period where I will draw one every day for a while then I won't draw any for months. I even lost it for a while and was very sad. I think the longest gap between pages has been a year. This is the most recent skull, drawn on 05.28.2018. Most of them are posted on my Instagram but you have to scroll back a ways to get at the bulk of them.
"Man on the Train: Hey, are you a dreamer?
Wiley: Yeah.
Man on the Train: I haven’t seen too many around lately. Things have been tough lately for dreamers. They say dreaming is dead, no one does it anymore. It’s not dead it’s just that it’s been forgotten, removed from our language. Nobody teaches it so nobody knows it exists. The dreamer is banished to obscurity. Well, I’m trying to change all that, and I hope you are too. By dreaming, every day. Dreaming with our hands and dreaming with our minds. Our planet is facing the greatest problems it’s ever faced, ever. So whatever you do, don’t be bored, this is absolutely the most exciting time we could have possibly hoped to be alive. And things are just starting" - waking life (movie).
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So the other day I had a beautiful conversation about lucid dreaming with some friends. We shared amazing dream memories that we all had experienced and right the next day this sleeping beauty started showing up on a piece of paper.
What about you, are you a dreamer? :)
♠️
Something a little different than my normal work. I just started a tattoo apprenticeship so I am learning to draw in traditional tattoo flash style. My old style of illustration work will not go anywhere. I am continuing that but just growing artistically and learning something new.
Little watercolor horses, they were fun to draw and paint and each seems to have it's own personality. Some look a little too much like a donkey though. lol
Gourd-face started out as a tiny doodle in my sketchbook but I couldn't stop thinking about him. So I drew several gourd-faces. This one has the unfortunate circumstance of growing on his face. Poor Gourdy. I drew him with pencil and then colored on the computer. Cheers!
I’ve started to feed a couple of strays in my area. Some have clearly been on the streets their whole lives, look very unwell, and have not been spayed/neutered. I wish I could take them all in and get them over to see a vet.
Sketchbooking today, just moved and am unpacking.
A trippy forest that started as a pen doodle in Calculus class and is available as a print on products on Redbubble, Society6, Fine Art America, Zazzle, and Threadless. Try this link for easy access to all sites: https://linktr.ee/okhismakingart
This is a mashup of art styles. I'm not even sure how to describe it. Started with the main mushroom that is outlined and then went crazy around it. Also experimented with water reflections a bit.
私のパトレオンで利用可能な印刷可能で着色デザイン | Printable and coloring design available on my Patreon | Diseño imprimible y para colorear disponible en mi Patreón: https://www.patreon.com/posts/chu-yin-kitei-134803356
check out my instagram if you like it, I started painting less than a year ago and im self taught so im just sharing my progression to everyone along the way.
heelo:) i drew this along time ago, this was the first drawing i coloured in on my ipad. i started this drawing on the train, when i was travelling to france with people i really love. everytime i look at this drawing it makes me so happy, because i think of all the beautiful memories. on my waterbottle, cleo (yes, my waterbottle has a name), is a giraffe wich inspired this drawing. have a wonderful day :)
A friend commissioned me to redraw a small inktober doodle into a 11x17 version. Pen and ink with black watercolor. Does my larger version still have the same lighthearted feel as the original doodle?
Ah yes, this... It all started two weeks ago when my mom said I could buy this pumpkin if I could carry it, and I did. All 50lbs of it. I kind of had an idea going into this, it got thrown out the window as soon as I started. 6 hours later I present this creature to you.
Ballpoint pen and Stabilos; this took longer than it should've. I think it turned out pretty nicely, but the coloring isn't the best (my pens started running out of ink). "I reject your reality and substitute my own"- Adam Savage
hello ☺️ my friends and i went to a really nice pottery workshop and we had so much fun. I also started to learn playing the guitar some time ago. so i felt really inspired to make this study. really enjoyed drawing it ☺️
thaank you and wish you a wonderful day!
Lightness 4: when a levity hurls us away.
This serie started with the purpose of paining people literary threw away from small ordinary objects like flowers of balloons. I wanted to depict the strength and the power that trifles have on us. Eventually ithey paintings became more and more “stable”, with just a touch of surrealism in them.
I kindly thank Ale for posing for me with patient. Thanks to her hair style, I am pretty sure you can recognize her in my last paintings ;)
I realized lately that I need to practice more instead of focussing too much on new ideas. So I started with face-practicing since I enjoy that the most. Thank you very much for looking at my drawing!
Treasure - That time when Illario gifted Daenerys with dragon eggs, a gift for her wedding to Khal Drogo. The 3 dragon eggs came in a chest and are rare to find. Daenerys started taking care of them, the eggs are children, her treasure. *I have already completed the entire Inktober- you can check it out on my IG account: @dittofunkysketch123 :D
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In an attempt to be much more consistent with my drawing practice (and to tackle my insecurities about showing people my drawings) I am hoping that posting some of my sketches online will help keep me accountable. So day 1 sketch, I managed to find a very cheap used college set of Rotring Rapidograph pens online, when they arrived today I was delighted to see that they had NEVER been used! After a bit of a happy dance I got a couple of the pens assembled and started to figure out how they work. This is a quick sketch on tracing paper not that I was tracing anything I just need to invest in better paper with less tooth to be able to use these pens without having ink flow issues.
These illustrations are part of an ongoing series on anxiety I started in early April 2018, as part of #The100DayProject. (See @helloanxiety_illustrated on Instagram to see more complete stories of each individual). This project is an extension of the fear illustrations I've been creating since 2012 (www.fear-illustrated).
I've started a new sketch book (one of many, lol), which I am dedicating to ink drawings only. No pencils, no watercolours, just pen and ink :) I drew this doodle today with a Uniball pen and a light ink wash for the space sky. No reference, totally made up. Mistakes and all! Available as stickers and other goodies on Red Bubble.
Sketchbook is Stillman and Birn Alpha - I love, love, love the whiteness of its pages!
This feels like it could be a fun kids activity page. When I started this doodle it was just the hill with the tunnel maze and a few things added in the maze area. It didn’t feel like it was going anywhere, but as I kept adding things I started to get into it and now I’m happy that I didn’t ditch it. It’s always fun when a piece surprises me. It never gets old.
